Help with Hitec Laser 4 radio control

Kevo

Hi
I recently bought the said model radio control. The problem is I cannot charge it.

In the manual it says:

To charge your batteries, first make sure your transmitter and receiver are off;
then connect the wall charger outputs to the charging jack on the transmitter and
the charge receptacle on the switch harness or directly to the battery.
Make sure the green (TX) and red (RX) lights come on. If it does not,
check for proper connection and/or power to the outlet.

There is a copy of the manual here.

I get the first part ("connect the wall charger outputs to the charging jack on the transmitter") but I cannot find the "charge receptacle on the switch harness". Can someone please help me? I really want to get this working soon.
Thanks in advance,
Kevin

loopingfred

Hi Kevin,

The charge receptacle on the switch harness, this is for the receiver battery.
The on/off switch may have another plug, that's where you plug the charge plug, or some switches got a slide on the top, behind it, you have the charge plug...
Or simply unplug the battery from the on/off switch and plug the charge plug directly to it if accessible. :rolleyes:

For the radio, the charge jack is on the side, just plug and wait !

I can do photos, but that's easy to find I think !

Kevo

Thanks for the reply.

I follow the bit about connecting the jack to the controller but I am unsure about the receiver. There are no ports which fit the charger on the receiver.

Any chance you could do those photos?

Thanks a mil.

vectra

Kevo wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

I follow the bit about connecting the jack to the controller but I am unsure about the receiver. There are no ports which fit the charger on the receiver.

Any chance you could do those photos?

Thanks a mil.

You do NOT plug it into the receiver
Plug it into the receiver Battery Pack
Thats assuming that it is a nitro car ?

loopingfred

Alright, sorry, a bit lazy tonight to take photos in my garage !
But here we go anyway...



That's a tipical RC switch.
On the left, the red bit, is plugged to your receiver

On the right, the bottom plug, that's where you plug the receiver battery (4 or 5 cells generaly...) the top one, that's where you plug your charger !

As Vectra said, don't plug your charger directly to the receiver !
Bad ! Smoke -->bin--> buy another one



And now, here is one with the integrated charging plug :



The charge plug is usually hidden by a slide...

Well, if you still can't find yours, send us a photo of your installation / switch and so on, but my guess is that you have the first switch...

If you have a very "basic" switch like that one :



One end is plugged to your receiver, the other end to your battery...
In this case, unplug the battery, and plug the charger to the battery and that's it !

Have fun !

Fred

Kevo

Ok. It seems that I have a different setup to you guys. I don't have any a switch and I have a separate battery for the motor and receiver.

I'm having a load of strange problems with the plane so I'm going to bring it down to the shop I bought it in on saturday to sort it out.

Thanks for you help.

vectra

Hold on.
Are you running an electric car or a Nitro/Petrol car ? ( assuming it is a car )

Kevo

It's an electric plane. heh, I prob should have said that sooner.

loopingfred

Yep, may be !

Photos of the fuselage would help to help you if you don't want to wait saturday...

Kevo

I'l post them when I get back from work this evening.

vectra

Kevo wrote: »

It's an electric plane. heh, I prob should have said that sooner.

well.
Assuming that an electric plane works on a similar principle as an electric car.
You only have one batterypack which connects to the esc ?
If so.
Then dont worry about the charging of the receiver pack. You would only normally use that in a nitro or petrol model.
Your main battery pack in the plane looks after everything.;)

loopingfred

Hi Vectra,

Often, in an electric plane, you can have a second battery pack, for the receiver.
Most of the time, because you have more than 4 or 5 servos, some BEC on the ESCs will not give enough power to the servos, so you need to add a receiver battery pack (BEC on Esc are often limited to a few amps... ok for cars with 2 servos, but when you have more, that is not good)

But the principle will still be the same as below...
Kevo, what is your plane name/brand ?

Kevo

Multiplex EasyStar.

It has one shared battery for the motor and receiver. The plane itself seems to work but the remote will not charge. Also, the plane seems to have a mind of its own and turns the motor on and off regardless of any signal from the remote.

loopingfred

Alright, let's try to give you some clues...

Stupid thing... TX and RX on the same channel/frequency ?
Receiver aerial fully deployed ?

Move the receiver as far as possible from the esc.. If not possible, put the receiver into aluminium foil, that will help a little with the possible glitches (looks like that is what you have..)

For the motor going ON and OFF, make sure the throttle stick is on the good one... You can also reverse the Throttle (see the program on your radio... Be carefull with your fingers, objects and hold the plane when you turn everything back on ! But you already have problems with the motor going on and off, so you already know that ! ).

I don't really understand why you can't charge your remote !

Just plug the jack to the charger and charge !
Or you have inverted polarity ! Are you using the Hitec charger that goes with your radio ?
Is it working ? (I know, stupid but eh ?! )

If you are using another charger, check the polarity !
You should see something like this on the radio and on the charger (wall one only..)


Check you did setup the good number of cells to be charged (I think that is 8 on the Optic... :rolleyes: )

Kevo

Ok heres a pic of the insides without the battery.


I assume that I am getting interference which is causing the unusual behaviour.

loopingfred

Oh boy...

Quick answer, I will go more detailed tomorrow if nobody do it before me...:rolleyes:

Well, first of all, you need to change all your connections and make proper ones... Interference are not surprising with your setup.
You can use a very wide range of connectors, PK (Banana ) plugs, Dean, Multiplex style and so on... I personaly use 4mm PK plugs.

Also, did you use the Permax motor from Multiplex ?


Do you have a condensator, like the yellow thing on the photo above ? If not, that will create interferences too.

First thing, clean up all your connections with proper connectors...
If you have any problem still, the best thing for you to do, will be to go to a club near you for someone to have a look... You are in Bray, I am in Churchtown, so I can help you, but I will be off for 2 weeks starting saturday... But if you have time before that...

The shop should have at least sold you the connectors for your model, should be with the motor, ESC, battery... Or you have them and did not fitted them ?